Russian stocks closed mixed on ruble fall, ratings downgrade

MOSCOW, Dec 24 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market closed mixed on Friday due to the ruble weakening, slightly depressed by Moody’s and S&P’s downgrade, analysts said.

The MICEX rose 0.66% to 1,417.80 and RTS decreased 1.84% to 828.57.

The RTS decreased following a fall of the ruble after the mineral extraction tax payment finished, while the oversold MICEX corrected upwards, Andrei Dirgin, head of Alfa-Forex analytic department, said.

The stocks shrugged off geopolitical events and corporate news as Western markets are inactive on Boxing Day, while local investors are readying for the New Year and Orthodox Christmas holidays, Sofia Kirsanova, analyst at Raiffeisen Capital, said.

The downgrade of Russian core companies by Moody’s on Wednesday and S&P’s downgrade of Russia’s outlook put the stocks under pressure, the analyst said.

Diamond mining giant ALROSA rose 3.02% to 58.72 rubles despite its board ordered the CEO to exchange some of the company’s revenue into rubles in compliance with government orders and because of its outlook’s downgrade by Moody’s.

UTair continued growing after Alfa-Bank waived its request to arrest its property in order not to disrupt flights during the New Year and Orthodox Christmas holidays on Thursday, the company rose 16.88% to 9.35 rubles.

Fertilizer producer Uralkali rose 1.33% to 133.25 rubles despite the fact its shareholders rejected January-June dividend payment in favor of investment.

Below are the MICEX’ five most active stocks on Friday:

Company	Change, %	Last price, rbl	Trading volume, bln rbl
Sberbank	-2.67	53.13	7.807
Gazprom	-1.51	0.06895	4.981
VTB	-0.15	134.60	1.805
Lukoil	+2.64	2264.00	1.186
Norilsk Nickel	-0.18	39.53	0.969

(52.6159 rubles – U.S. $1)

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